Where have all the garden birds gone?

Okay, hands up – I don’t live in a leafy suburb but crikey there’s nothing out there. I’ve got two feeders up and yesterday I chucked the best part of a granary loaf out onto the lawn. Not a lesser spotted sausage! The bread is still there. Where are the bluetits and robins and dunnocks etc. that used to frequent my garden? What’s the bird action like where you are compared to ten years ago? I can’t remember the last time I saw a house sparrow chirruping away on the guttering 😥

in our garden 😀

Aren’t most of them on holiday at this time of year?

house sparrows have made a bit of a comeback here, and they are bloody crafty. Not all of them have the skill to extract sunflower seeds from the feeder so the most agile will sit there and just pull them out and let them drop to the floor where the rest of the gang are waiting !

IN my Dads garden, tits, sparrows, robins, nuthatch… been loads of them. Don;t have much where I am other than rooks and pigeons!

It’s hardly been a harsh winter, so maybe they don’t need to run the gauntlet of your neighbours cats, and are happy eating the glut of fruit from this summer? Some of our local (old english) apple trees still have fruit in them.

just been for quick watch of the feeders, some visiting long tails, reed buntings and greater spotted woodpecker trying to get past the anti-squirrel peanut feeder with not much luck. Plus all the usuals.

how many cats do you see in your garden?

small bird population has plumetted this year, feeders that were emptying in a week are barely touched this year

couple of blackbirds, the odd Blue Tit, a robin,a solitary Woodpigeon and a Jay all only occassional vistors to a well stocked garden (5 feeders)

I live in the leafy suburbs with woods nearby

Our feeders were emptying out on a weekly basis in August, now though we only seem to need to top-up once a month!

It wasn’t me – I didn’t eat them!

Ive had a Blackcap and a Tree Sparrow in my garden this aft.

Garden birds no different to last year as yet. However I have seen no Kingfishers this year on the river Teme (opposite my house) Pretty much every time I walked down the river last year I saw one.

Feeders going down well in Cheltenham,great tits/blue tits/greenfinches/bullfinches/.Saying that the blackbirds have only just come back not seen them for ages.Did have a pleasant in the garden month back very strange running away from the guns.

Same place as the farmland birds i imagine.

Aye, seems to be fewer birds here too. Was putting it down to the neighbours buying a crap yappy dug.

I think I read in the Daily Mail that all the immigrants were eating our British birds. I may be mistaken 🙂

It’s very mild, lots of stuff still on the trees and hedges, so plenty of birds staying out of gardens. Not mine, little bu99ers are regularly clearing out the feeders hanging in the Acer. Mostly goldfinches, hordes of them, sparrows, robin, dunnock, greenfinch, chaffinch, blue tit, great tit, coal tit, blackbird, wood pigeon…
Haven’t seen the goldcrest this year though.

Plenty here. It takes them a few days to come back when we forget to refill the feeders but once they’re back the seed is gone in a few days, sometimes one day. Just bought some cheaper seed from the pound shop and they don’t like that. Back to the posh stuff from WWT. Finches, Sparrows, Various tits, Robins and Starlings are regulars. Had a couple of Jays and Doves but nothing too rare. Pretty urban here.

Austerity measures mean that they don’t get fed at C_G Towers. 🙁

As mentioned above, its still mild and they are finding food in other places.
Also migration was late this year.

Cats can be a problem.

Buzzards eat em all…

We’ve got tons – siskins, goldfinches, greenfinches, bullfinches, tits. Oh, and a Sparrowhawk.

Put out sunflower seeds and nyjer seeds? They come flocking. Oh, and shoot the cats.

Little sods can be incredibly choosy. I always get sunflower hearts from Wilco, and they absolutely strip the feeders bare, tried Niger seeds, they just toss them on the floor. Tried mixed food, same thing. Tried Wilco’s fat filled coconut shells, they totally ignore them, tried similar from a local pet food store and they like that. They won’t touch Wilco fat balls, but go nuts over the WWF ones from the Pound shop.
Go figure.

We have the lot at the moment . A horde of sparrows who empty a feeder in a day two collared doves who seem to just follow the sparrows. Robin’s blue tits and goldfinches. Starlings and blackbirds too.

We also get red kites which do scare off the smaller birds for a bit.

Oh, and shoot the cats

I imagine bird numbers in Blackburn are up

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/blackburn/9376217._15_cats_stolen_in_Blackburn_for_dog_baiting_fights_/

two woodpeckers.. every variety of tit and finch.. jays blackbirds robins sparrows and woodpigeon.. some sort of treecreeper and a magpie as fat as a hen after it ate all the spring eggs otherwise I’m sure we’d have a lot more..

every variety of tit???? shall I inform the BTO? 😉

British Tit Office..?

We’ve one fat blackbird that’s been gorging himself on the grapes from the grape vines in our garden, everyday for weeks now. He’s getting kind of friendly now too – either that or he’s now just too bulky to fly away quickly.

Magpies are responsble for the death of lots of young birds, you may or may not have noticed there are lot more of them about these days, time was you”d salute them with a Hi Mr Magpie hows your mrry wife today, so infrequent they were, the one for sorrow two fo joy ryhme very rarely got to ‘boy’ yet frequently we get six in our garden.
Even the dawn chorus has quietened, we live right at th edge of town enjoyed birds of all descriptions in our garden, but sadly they are now a rarity, no doubt there are other factors, but it does seem a coincidence that there are now so many magpies. I’ve even considered buying and air rifle to attempt my own pathetic balance redress local to my hedgerows during spring when they attack the nests and steal eggs.

Somewhere cold for the winter?

Magpies are responsble for the death of lots of young birds, you may or may not have noticed there are lot more of them about these days, time was you”d salute them with a Hi Mr Magpie hows your mrry wife today, so infrequent they were, the one for sorrow two fo joy ryhme very rarely got to ‘boy’ yet frequently we get six in our garden.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/m/magpie/population_changes.aspx

Hmm according to that Magpies are not guilty. Maybe shoot cats instead then.

Don’t leave food on the floor as it will attract rats and other vermin and also makes it easy for cats to snare any birds it attracts.
Got magpies,rooks,robins blackbirds,bluetits,woodpecker,pigeons and a couple of others I can’t recognise in my shared Glasgow garden-no ctas though.Seem to be attracted to a coconut feeder hanging on the washing line and a patch of soil that I rake over regularly.
Not seen a sparrow for ages though.

magpies and jackdaws do seem to be thriving around here too.
Was a time when youngsters with airguns and nesting would keep their numbers quite low.
Now with kids not venturing further than an xbox or PS3 …

Oh for the days of wanton wildlife slaughter ..

Here:

Stacks here, and at my parents. More than ever this year I think.

Magaluf?

Not even seen a Sparrow in my garden in East London for the past 15 years
Then again could be due to Magpies every where

Loads here. Despite virtually everyone on our road (and us) having yappy dogs. Few cats though.

My birds still in the garden, she looks a bit cold- maybe i should let her in……. 😉